More actions + changes on skills + vector & pixel

How are you humans? Long time since last update. As we always say, we are super focused in the making of the game so our apologies for the delay. Right now our top priority is to improve all the material we had of Paradise Lost in almost every possible aspect, from graphics to gameplay. Here’s a sneak peak of the things we are working on.

Nature knows best

One of the key features of PLFC is that Subject W is able to handle a lot of elements in the environment, from activating buttons / levers to seek hideouts in the nearest objects to go unnoticed.

As the map evolves we think of new ways to break your head as you progress, giving greater depth and complexity to the experience. Talking about interactions, here you can see how W recovers health with a water bottle from a vending machine and some of the stage elements that you could use to hide from different positions such as lockers, drawers, boxes… (beware, many can be locked!)

Growing a more beautiful plant

As you know the enhancement of animations is very important for us, that’s the reason we are polishing every single aspect of the game in the best way we can. Below you can take a look at the differences between the old and new skills, and as stated earlier, many of them are redesigned to improve the way you advance, not only visually but playable.

The camouflage is a simple yet effective skill that helps the plant go unperceived to the enemies around, as long as it remains still, adding new capabilities such as stealth movement as you level it up. We realized that showing a simple transparent effect to the character looks too poor, so we added a shader that creates a “Predator” effect reflecting the background as you move.

The old spore and decoy abilities were designed the same way, with the plant raising a vine to the head extracting and throwing the seed of both skills. We decided to differentiate them with new animations that also change the way they are used, giving more variety.

The decoy will help the player both solving puzzles and infiltrating / reaching inaccessible areas going unseen. As we tested it we realized that throwing the seed away of you made the use of this skill easy and unchallenging… so we gave it a twist. Now the seed is planted next to you so you’ll have to calculate precisely the distance before it rots. Also, the anim has been detailed to make a better contrast with the stages.

The gas spore keeps its functionality but we wanted to make a new animation for it, based on the seed dispersal that make some plants in real life, similar to the Ecballium elaterium. In the anim W contracts its leaves and shoots the spore, reacting when it reaches the ground.

The shell, formerly known as shield, serves not only as defense, it’s also a weapon to knock out enemies and a tool to break surfaces or move items hitting them. In terms of design hasn’t barely changed, we’ve simply polished the animation scheme.

The spine that controls the enemies from distance has also been redesigned, improving the fluidity of the vines as it creates the thorn.

Vector & pixel love

From the beginning we wanted to include new effects an vector graphics (as you can see in the use of non-pixel fonts for the texts) that mixes different aesthetic styles, being careful that every piece fits perfectly and gives an homogeneous look. Old and new does not have to be incompatible.

One of the first things that was designed in PLFC was the skill wheel that displays all the abilities that you can use… but as we added new effects, fonts and vector menus, we realized that this design remained a little archaic and nonfunctional. This redesigned wheel presents more recognizable icons and shows the number of items that you can use related with the ability gauge.

In future updates we will show you more details of the design and playable interfaces, based on clean and elegant curvilinear forms. As always we hope you enjoy the game as it evolves, and please, be patient with us… all these changes are taking us longer that we expected but they actually enhance a lot more the game experience, and that is our main goal.